Iran War Powers Resolution

Senate reverses course on Iran war powers resolution after Trump rallies Republican holdouts

The U.S. Senate handed President Trump a clear win late Wednesday, rejecting a Democratic war powers resolution that would have directed him to withdraw American forces from hostilities with Iran unless Congress authorized the mission.

The procedural motion failed 47-50-1, a sharp reversal from just one day earlier, when four Republican senators had defected to help pass a nearly identical measure.

The turnaround came after Trump met with GOP senators in a closed-door session that multiple outlets described as heated. Within hours, two key Republican holdouts, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, changed their positions, collapsing the bipartisan coalition that had briefly embarrassed the White House.

The result killed Sen. Tim Kaine's resolution, which would have ordered Trump to "remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran" without congressional authorization.

Had it cleared both chambers, Trump would have needed to veto it. Instead, the measure never got that far.

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